Road Tripping in the USA!

[[TW]Fox]

How come Virgin Holidays are so much cheaper for hire cars than seemingly anywhere else, even the hire companies' own sites? It seems to include all the right insurances and even an extra driver.

Book with them if they are cheapest, there isn't a catch I don't think.

 

[[TW]Fox]

You are far better off pre booking.

You realise driving to the South Rim for the day is like driving to the Lake District for the day from London, right? It's not even in the same State!

 

[[TW]Fox]

Vision Air. If you want to do it in a day, IMHO its the only sensible option.

 

[[TW]Fox]

You might as well just rent a fullsize SUV - its not exactly mega money and it'll be more comfortable for 3 adults.

 

[[TW]Fox]

I had a Chevrolet Suburban the first time I booked the same class and a Ford Explorer the second time. Both were new & huge.

Suburban is the extended size Tahoe and isn't generally given out in the same class unless they are out of cars.

 

[[TW]Fox]

I can hope, I suppose!

It's exactly the same car so no real benefit to getting it over a Tahoe IMHO.

 

[[TW]Fox]

It is a standard fullsize, so likely the same class as the Taurus. I would not expect to have to pay to take a Charger over a Taurus.

Don't forget the Charger is simply a bog standard sedan. The Challenger is the Dodge Coupe now (Though really thats just a differently styled 2 door Charger).

 

[[TW]Fox]

A Challenger is likely to have a bit more grunt than a Taurus though, no?

No, they've all got circa 300bhp engines in the V6 variants.

The Taurus isn't that common anyway.

 

[[TW]Fox]

A Mustang is perfect

Well no

It's tolerable on a 2 week trip, it isn't perfect. It's something you do once for the novelty factor because novelty aside it's fairly crap.

 

[[TW]Fox]

You'll be fine.

 

[[TW]Fox]

The V8 will be fun but it's still a common every day car. You won't dislike it.

It's incredibly unlikely to be a V8.

 

[[TW]Fox]

Booking a convertible (Mustang or similar) is likely to get you a 2L 4 pot Ecoboost or maybe the V6 if you are unlucky (which has the same bhp as the Ecoboost). You'd need to specifically pay more and book a V8 if you want one.

Renting V8 Mustangs must be the most lucrative business model going, people pay astonishingly stupid daily rates for them even though they are not expensive to buy.

I drove off the lot in a $60,000 Cadillac once and the daily rate was half that of cheaper to buy V8 Mustang parked a few stalls over...

 

[[TW]Fox]

wow, they only appear to have a couple of crusty old 737s

It was a much smaller plane than that, it's a 40 minute flight to a tiny airport?

 

[[TW]Fox]

Don't bother with those prepaid cards, just take a decent credit card and forget about having to 'dump money' on it etc etc.

 

[[TW]Fox]

Did it via Www.turo.com as better deal was $700 for 4 days with full insurance cover, would have being less with lesser cover. This covered upto 400 miles and each mile beyond was 0.52c or $52 for each additional 100 miles so pennies.

Given that an Ecoboost is typically 30 quid a day Inc insurance and unlimited mileage that is a heck of a lot of money just for a different engine

 

[[TW]Fox]

Did look for Camaro V8 but could not find any. Found a V8 Dodge Challenger which if was not such a sunny country would have gone with.

Also I paid $100 more for delivery to the hotel instead of airport collection which adds to the cost but this was not a trying to save money excercise, just get the car I wanted and it cost what it cost.

If it wasn't a money saving exercise why didnt you just rent a brand new V8 from one of the rental majors instead of some random guys car?

For 4 days short notice rental from LAX Sixt have the following:

Mustang GT Convertible: £477
Jaguar F Type Convertible: £500

All fully inclusive zero excess full CDW.

Surely that would have been better?

 

[[TW]Fox]

That was just the first place I picked - Sixt direct. Guaranteed GT.

 

[[TW]Fox]

New York is probably the most expensive place in the mainland US to rent a car from. You'd have been better off flying to somewhere like Boston, saving a fortune on your rental and adding another city to the list to see. Boston is nice.

 

[[TW]Fox]

At a guess they will probably be AWD if they are an SUV, although I question why you’ll need 4x4?! Extra ground clearance certainly, but where are you planning on going that needs the extra traction? Planning on doing it in Winter?

Tioga Pass is closed in winter anyway.

 

[[TW]Fox]

I found Monument Valley a real let down, hours and hours of driving with nothing to see and it looked the same as on a post card.

This. It isn't on the way to the canyon from Vegas either!